The Canary Islands, also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish region, autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are 100 kilometres west of Morocco. They are the southernmost of the autonomous communities of Spain. The islands have a population of 2.2 million people and are the most populous special territory of the European Union.
Pope Martin V, born OttoColonna, was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 11 November 1417 to his death in February 1431. His election effectively ended the Western Schism of 1378–1417. He is the last pope to date to take on the pontifical name "Martin".
Pope Sixtus IV was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 9 August 1471 until his death. His accomplishments as pope included the construction of the Sistine Chapel and the creation of the Vatican Library. A patron of the arts, he brought together the group of artists who ushered the early Renaissance into Rome with the first masterpieces of the city's new artistic age.
Pope Nicholas V, born Tommaso Parentucelli, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 6 March 1447 until his death, in March 1455. Pope Eugene IV made him a cardinal in 1446 after successful trips to Italy and Germany, and when Eugene died the next year, Parentucelli was elected in his place. He took his name Nicholas in memory of his obligations to Niccolò Albergati.
Pope Paul III was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 13 October 1534 to his death, in November 1549.
Pope Eugene IV, born Gabriele Condulmer, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 11 March 1431 to his death, in February 1447. Condulmer was a Venetian, and a nephew of Pope Gregory XII. In 1431, he was elected pope.
Lanzarote is a Spanish island, the easternmost of the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean, 125 kilometres off the north coast of Africa and 1,000 kilometres from the Iberian Peninsula. Covering 845.94 square kilometres, Lanzarote is the fourth-largest of the islands in the archipelago. With 163,230 inhabitants at the beginning of 2024, it is the third most populous Canary Island, after Tenerife and Gran Canaria. Located in the centre-west of the island is Timanfaya National Park, one of its main attractions. The island was declared a biosphere reserve by UNESCO in 1993. The island's capital is Arrecife, which lies on the eastern coastline. It is the smaller main island of the Province of Las Palmas.
Dum Diversas is a papal bull issued on 18 June 1452 by Pope Nicholas V. It authorized King Afonso V of Portugal to fight, subjugate, and conquer “those rising against the Catholic faith and struggling to extinguish Christian Religion”— namely, the "Saracens (Muslims) and pagans" in a militarily disputed African territory. The document consigned warring enemies that lost to "perpetual servitude". This and the subsequent bull, issued by Nicholas in 1455, gave the Portuguese what they saw as moral justification to freely acquire slaves along the African coast by force or trade. The edicts are thus seen as having facilitated the Portuguese slave trade from West Africa and as having legitimized the European colonization of the African continent.
Sublimis Deus is a Papal bull promulgated by Pope Paul III on June 2, 1537, which forbids the enslavement of the indigenous peoples of the Americas and all other indigenous people who could be discovered later or previously known. It states that the Indians are fully rational human beings who have rights to freedom and property, even if they are heathen.
Romanus Pontifex is the title of at least three papal bulls:
The Catholic Church during the Age of Discovery inaugurated a major effort to spread Christianity in the New World and to convert the indigenous peoples of the Americas and other indigenous peoples. The evangelical effort was a major part of, and a justification for, the military conquests of European powers such as Portugal, Spain, and France. Christian missions to the indigenous peoples ran hand-in-hand with the colonial efforts of Catholic nations. In the Americas and other colonies in Asia, and Africa, most missions were run by religious orders such as the Franciscans, Dominicans, Augustinians, and Jesuits. In Mexico, the early systematic evangelization by mendicants came to be known as the "Spiritual Conquest of Mexico".
Sicut dudum was a papal bull promulgated by Pope Eugene IV in Florence on January 13, 1435, which forbade the enslavement of the natives of the Canary Islands who had converted, or were converting to, Christianity and ordered, under pain of excommunication, that all such slaves be set free within 15 days.
The Kingdom of the Canary Islands was a vassal state of the Crown of Castile located in North Africa, lasting from 1404 to 1448.
The Catholic Church and slavery have a long and complicated history. Slavery was practiced and accepted by many cultures and religions around the world throughout history, including in ancient Rome. Passages in the Old Testament sanctioned forms of temporal slavery for Israelites as a means to repay a debt. Slaves, captured in war or purchased, and their children were enslaved for life. After Christianity was legalized under the Roman empire, sentiment grew that many kinds of slavery were incompatible with Christian justice. Views ranged from rejecting all forms of slavery to accepting slavery subject to certain restrictions. The Christian West almost entirely enforced that a free Christian could not be enslaved, for example as a captive in war. However, this was not consistently applied throughout history. The Middle Ages witnessed the emergence of orders of monks such as the Mercedarians who focused on ransoming Christian slaves. By the end of the Medieval period, enslavement of Christians had been largely abolished throughout Europe, although enslavement of non-Christians remained permissible and was revived in Spain and Portugal. Slavery remained a subject of debate within the Church for centuries, with several Popes issuing bulls on the issue, such as Sublimis Deus.
The conquest of the Canary Islands by the Crown of Castile took place between 1402 and 1496 in two periods: the Conquista señorial, carried out by Castilian nobility in exchange for a covenant of allegiance to the crown, and the Conquista realenga, carried out by the Spanish crown itself during the reign of the Catholic Monarchs. It has been described as the first instance of European settler colonialism in Africa.
Alfonso Carrillo de Acuña was a Spanish politician and Roman Catholic archbishop.
The Battle of Tangier, sometimes referred to as the siege of Tangiers, and by the Portuguese, as the disaster of Tangier, refers to the attempt by a Portuguese expeditionary force to seize the Moroccan citadel of Tangier and its defeat by the armies of the Marinid Sultanate in 1437.
Luis de La Cerda, also called Louis of Spain was an expatriate royal prince of the Crown of Castile, who lived and served in the Kingdom of France. Among his titles, Luis de la Cerda was the count of Talmont, count of Clermont and an admiral of France. He was also made the first 'Prince of Fortuna' by Pope Clement VI in 1344, although he never actually set foot on the islands.
The 1261 papal election took place after the death of Pope Alexander IV on 25 May and chose Pope Urban IV as his successor. Since Pope Alexander had been resident in Viterbo since the first week of May 1261, the meeting of the cardinals to elect his successor took place in the Episcopal Palace at Viterbo, which was next to the Cathedral of S. Lorenzo. The actual date of the beginning of the Electoral Meeting is unknown. If the canon of Pope Boniface III were still in effect, then the Election could not begin until the third day after the Pope's burial.
Alfonso de Bolaños was a Franciscan friar and missionary of the 15th century. He is nicknamed the "Apostle of Tenerife" because he initiated an evangelizing process on this island approximately 30 years before the conquest of it.
